Governor Ige’s response to Rep. Colleen Hanabusa’s official announcement that she intends to challenge him for the governorship in 2018:

The people of Hawai‘i are always served by choices in leadership. I welcome Colleen’s entrance into the race.

It is one thing to criticize, and it is another to get the people’s business done. I am proud of our record during the last three years. We have made hard decisions, sometimes unpopular decisions, because it was the right thing to do and in the best interests of the people of this state.

Our team has improved our financial standing saving the state hundreds of millions in interest payments and rekindled long-stalled infrastructure
projects. I kept my promise to cool schools, protected over 40,000 acres of watershed forests on four islands, and ended favoritism and pay to play cronyism in state government, opening up more contracts to our local small businesses. I am also proud of how my administration has taken on the Trump Administration when they have put Hawai‘i’s and the nation’s values and rights in jeopardy, doing more than most other governors to fight unfair and discriminatory policies coming out of Congress and the White House.

I may not be the typical politician, but what we need today is less politics and more hard work. The historic firsts coming out of my administration and things I have done since taking office reflects this effort. That is the kind of leadership I believe Hawai‘i deserves.